After my girlfriend left her job, she had a month of employer covered health insurance before she had to get onto a COBRA. With COBRA, the coverage is retroactive for 60 days, which means she doesn’t have to pay and if she gets coverage in 60 days then she won’t need to. If she needs the coverage, she merely pays for the time since her coverage ended, so you’re covered but don’t have to pay until you actually need it. After 60 days however, she has to start paying to keep staying covered, or find other insurance. That’s where I (with help from Google) come in.

I did a search for health insurance on Google and the first site listed, eHealthInsurance[3], was a health insurance search engine. I gave it my girlfriend’s vitals and here are the plans it listed (I didn’t list a provider called Golden Rule because only members of some organization are eligible):

Some things to consider: The website only lists plans for Aetna, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, and Golden Rule. We did a custom search for a deductible under $5,000, no application fee, and a coinsurance of under 20%. We also required an out-of-pocket limit of under $10,000.

1. CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (Indemnity)

Deductible

Coinsurance

Office Visit

Monthly Premium

$5,000

20%

20% After Deductible

$48

$1,700

20%

20% After Deductible

$60

$2,500

20%

20% After Deductible

$63

$2,500

0%

0% After Deductible

$64

$400

25%

25% After Deductible

$114

2. CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (HMO)

Deductible

Coinsurance

Office Visit

Monthly Premium

$0

0%

$20

$160

3. Aetna (PPO)

Deductible

Coinsurance

Office Visit

Monthly Premium

$5,000

20%

$40

$77

$5,000

0%

0% After Deductible

$81

$2,750

20%

$20

$109

In addition to the major health insurance carriers, here are a few quotes from smaller providers:

4. Chesapeake Life Insurance – American Health Shield
This is short term major medical insurance.

Deductible

Coinsurance

Office Visit

Monthly Premium

$2,000

50% to $5k

Not Covered

$44.64 ($54.64 app. fee)

$5,000

50% to $5k

Not Covered

$39.36 ($49.36 app. fee)

There are many options before us and all of them are reasonably priced. I prefer the plans with low total out of pocket expense ceilings, high deductibles and low monthly premiums. We’ll have to find out the specifics of her COBRA before we decide but all the prices are within expectations.

Anyone out there have experience with temporary health insurance? I’m totally clueless and hope I’m not overlooking something.